Air Navigation and Transport (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank Senator Stephenson for raising this and I am proud to be a member of our Cross-Party Group. We are using our Private Members' time for this vital Bill. I also give credit to the Civil Engagement Group and Senators Higgins and Black, who have done a lot of work in this area and have brought forward similar legislation. The Bill will introduce a random inspection and enforcement regime for state flights through Irish airspace and landing in Irish airports. Contrary to what Senator Craughwell said, the OPLA has deemed it legally sound. It is deeply disappointing that the Government is indicating it will not support the Bill. I wish I could say I was surprised but I am not. For years we have come into this Chamber and debated again and again the systematic undermining of our neutrality by US military flights over our airspace or landing in our airports. The Government response again and again has been a stubborn refusal to even recognise the problem, let alone address it. Week on week, we see new reporting that the scale and scope of these military flights is rising. Again, the Government's response is to close its ears, as it were, and pretend there is no problem. No matter the circumstances, the refusal to implement a proper inspection regime or to take action on unsanctioned weapons flights is a betrayal. No matter what way it is dressed up, it is a betrayal of Irish neutrality. That is true at the best of times, but when those flights are in active support of a brutal and genocidal war in the Middle East, it becomes a deep moral failure on the part of our State. According to data collected by the military plane tracker Shannonwatch, at least 1,300 U.S. military and military-contracted civilian aircraft flew within 37 miles of Shannon Airport between January 2024 and March 2026, including at least 45 flights that travelled to or from Israel. We know that in October the Government granted an exemption for an Omni Air International flight chartered by the US military to carry arms to the Israeli military. It was the first time in almost 20 years that a Government had openly acknowledged authorising the transfer of weapons through Shannon to Israel. This came two years into a genocide. This Government has utterly failed to deliver on the clear call from the Irish people to take real action and to stand with the people of Palestine against the brutal onslaught they have been subjected to. Ministers will point out that ultimately symbolic actions like the recognition of the State of Palestine, which I commend, will show that they are listening to the clear calls from the Irish people. However, time after time, when it comes to taking a really firm stand, the Government shirks that responsibility. Think of all the abject failures we have seen already this week. There was the failure to include services in the occupied territories Bill and a failure to take any action towards a boycott of the Ireland-Israel football match. This is something we can do. The passage of weapons through Ireland to Israel is the clearest illustration of the utter failure of the Government to match rhetoric with any meaningful action. It is a cut-and-dried case of Irish complicity in Israeli crimes. This is shameful and demands action. I thank Senator Stephenson and the civil society groups she has worked with for bringing this Bill forward. It is not overly complicated. By introducing a proper, enforceable, random inspection regime, it would make it crystal clear that Ireland would no longer stand idly by while military and weapons flights flout our rules and undermine our neutrality. Crucially, it would also take action on the shameful use of Shannon for ICE deportation flights, which have been outlined here by Senators Stephenson and Andrews. We have seen the reports of this recently. These customs flights would be required to abide by human rights law and seek exemptions before landing in Shannon. According to data gathered by ICE flight monitors, five ICE flights using leased US civilian aircraft passed through Shannon conducting removal operations between May 2025 and February 2026. These ICE flights included third-country removals where individuals are forcibly taken to countries to which they have no connection. Imagine any of us being pushed into that situation. We can no longer be complicit in these flights or the military flights that are undermining our neutrality and adding fuel to the fire of the illegal wars in the Middle East. We have lagged behind other European countries on tackling the arms supply to Israel. Slovenia, Spain and France have all brought forward restrictions or embargoes and it is long past time that we played our part. For a long time, Labour has called for a complete ban on the use of Irish airspace and airports for the transport of weapons of war. This is a principled position that we root in our commitment to peace, neutrality and international law. This is why we are very proud to support this Bill and I urge colleagues across the House to do the same. This is a very tangible step that we can and should do. The Minister of State is a Gaeilgeoir. We as a country experienced genocide ourselves. Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine. We know that we are living in each other's shadows in this world. There is only one world and this is something that we can do. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-10